The population explosion in Orlando, first ignited by the theme park and entertainment boom and currently sustained by the city's additional growth in the banking and high-tech sectors, has created strong demand for recreational services, including golf courses. The result
is the Orlando area is among the fastest growing U.S. cities in the construction of new golf courses.

In my first visit to Orlando in the spring of 1999, I couldn't play all of the public and semi-private courses that were recommended to me, but I did manage to play a few. I plan to catch the others on my return trip. Here are some to consider:

The Disney Courses

Seeing how golf could be a vital part of the Disney entertainment package at Walt Disney World Resort, resort President Card Walker, an avid golfer, authorized the building of Disney's first two golf courses. The Magnolia Course and adjacent Palm Course, both designed by Joe Lee, opened simultaneously with the resort in 1971, the same year the company inaugurated the first Disney-sponsored PGA tournament. Jack Nicklaus won that event and the two subsequent Disney tournaments. Today, the event, now called The National Car Rental Golf Classic at Walt Disney World Resort, is one of the oldest PGA tournaments to be held at the same site.

As the popularity of Disney golf continued to grow, validating Walker's vision, the company added Lake Buena Vista (Joe Lee), Eagle Pines (Dye), and Osprey Ridge (Fazio), bringing the number of Walt Disney World (WDW) Resort 18's to five. There is also a 9-hole walking course, Oak Trail, primarily designed for resorts' visitors with very little golf experience.

OSPREY RIDGE: The newest Disney course, Osprey Ridge, opened in 1996 and designed by Tom Fazio. I am a diehard Fazio fan. I think he is THE best designer and I have played a dozen of his courses around the country. I would put Osprey Ridge right up there among his best.

Fazio is the Deacon of Dirt. He can sculpt some masterpieces out of the most pedestrian sites. As with Shadow Creek in Las Vegas, he turned a flat, undistinguished site within the Disney property into a layout that looks like it should be in the mountains. With upwards of a million tons of earth which he dug up to create some half dozen lakes around the course, he has created dramatic elevations and fashioned some of the most memorable holes marked by ridges and high mounds, waste bunkers bordered by tall native grasses, and wide-sweeping fairways that offer spectacular views of old pine forests. These features give Osprey Ridge a pristine look and feel that makes you think you are miles from civilization, yet The Magic Kingdom and all the other resort attractions are literally a few miles away. The course was renamed Osprey Ridge from its original title after Ospreys began nesting in the six nesting platforms installed around the course. The birds are just a few of the wildlife species seen on the site.

After a strong front 9 featuring a terrific downhill par 3 and the half-moon shaped dogleg right par 5 9th around a lake, the course seems to pick up momentum, as each magnificent hole gives way to the next. Nos. 16-18 are the best three finishing holes I have ever played. They include the par 5 16th, a 542-yard dogleg left around a lake from a well bunkered, sloped green elevated some 12 feet above the fairway. The drive from an elevated tee over water on the 216-yard 17th to a mounded green makes this hole as challenging as it is majestic, and the 454-yard 18th dogleg right around still another lake is reminiscent of Pete Dye's classic finishing holes.

Osprey Ridge is a genuine Tour caliber course, yet it is not laid out to accommodate huge crowds. There is only one access point to 14 of the holes -- a wooden bridge through dense forest.

For more information and tee times at the above five Disney courses, call 407-WDW-GOLF.
Photos courtesy of Walt Disney World.

CELEBRATION: Disney also has a community golf course called Celebration. It lies a few miles from the resort entrance in the community of Celebration developed by Disney Development Corporation. The community, which is about 3 miles east of the resort entrance off Rt. 192, is unique in that it represents the vision of Disney planners as to what communities of the future would be -- cohesive and self-sustaining living units that include hospitals, schools and recreation facilities, restaurants and shops and houses that are "homey" and not artificial. Resort visitors interested in community planning may enjoy visiting Celebration.

Celebration, the course, is a Robert Trent Jones Sr. and Jr. collaboration. Managed by American Golf, Celebration is the only Disney course run by an outside firm. The course is on forested land and farmland and has two distinct 9's. The front has a parkland feel and winds through tall pines and oaks, while the back has the windswept heathland look. It is wide open with lots of mounds and steep-lipped bunkers on the fairways and along the perimeters of the holes. I found this design characteristic a bit annoying and unnecessary, as one's view of the green is often obscured. Still, the course is extremely popular among resort guests. For information and tee times at Celebration call 407-566-4653.

OTHER ORLANDO-AREA DAILY FEE COURSES

Panther Lake at Orange County National

I missed Michael Jordan by a week when I played Panther Lake, the older of two courses (the other is Crooked Cat) at Orange County National. Jordan, just like me, must have heard just how great a course this was and came to see for himself. Along with Osprey Ridge, I have added this course to my Top 10 list; it is that good. It is located 20 minutes northwest of WDW Resort on former citrus groves. On largely flat undistinguished land the designers -- Phil Ritson, Dave Harmon and Isao Aoki -- fashioned an 18 that meanders over and around wetlands and through tall pines. The back 9 features a couple of modest elevations, notably on the 419-yard (from the blues) dogleg left 12th whose pine-tree-lined fairway gives it a New England look and the magnificent 573-yard 14th where you feel like you're driving off treetops to a rightward curving fairway that slopes down to a lakeside green. Stretching from 5073 to 7295 yard, Panther Lake plays to par 72 and has a 125 slope from the forward tees and 132 from the championship (blue, 6816 yards) tees.

Orange County National is the dream fulfilled of Phil Ritson, a long-time Top 100 PGA-certified instructor. Along with these two outstanding courses, he has established the Phil Ritson Golf Institute that, besides golf instruction, offers classes in horticulture, landscape/course design, course maintenance and computer training. The institute has partnerships with area private schools and a local community college. You will see Ritson's dedication to quality in the service and exceptional conditions of the courses. Mark this one down. 407-239-1198.

The Legacy Club at Alaqua Lakes

Located in a gated community off I-4 in Seminole County some 20 miles north of Orlando, this semi-private Fazio course measures 6763 yards from the blues and 5872 from the forward tees. It is one of the better community-based golf courses I have played and it has a few very scenic holes but it suffers some from all the home construction around it. The club, which hosted a Women's 1999 U.S. Open qualifying tournament, is worthy of being called "championship", but it is a notch down from his best work. The club is a member of the Audubon International Signature Cooperative Sanctuary Program. In an interesting novelty, the club hands out speeding tickets to players. It says that if players can complete their rounds in 4 hours 5 minutes or less, they will receive $5 off in the pro shop. 407-444-9995

Southern Dunes

Thirty miles south of WDW Resort in the unexceptional town of Haines City, where the film Thelma & Louise could have been shot, is this 6803-yard par 72 layout by Steve Smyers. A former teammate of Andy Bean on the 'Gator golf team, Smyers is fast earning high marks for his designs, the latest of which is Old Memorial, a very exclusive private club near Tampa that may one day be in the top 100 courses of the world.

At Southern Dunes, Smyers has tried to create a Scottish dunes-like feel. Whether he has achieved that or not is up for question. The course is, however, excellent. It is liberally bunkered with 180 large, dune-like bunkers draped on hillsides that one might easily imagine to be in the Scottish highlands or by the sea. That is, except for the fact that the course on many holes is lined with bungalow-style houses packed as closely to each other and to the out-of-bounds stakes as the law will permit. As my playing partner remarked, "These look like snowbird houses."

The houses do undermine what is a very scenic course, especially the back 9 which has some outstanding holes including the signature par 3 downhill 11th of 187 yards and the 548-yard 16th, a straightaway par 5 with lots of sand and water. The best hole on the course may be the 440-yard dogleg left 7th to an elevated green. The tee shot is downhill to the joint of the dogleg that is heavily guarded by bunkers. From there you might have anywhere from a 4-8 iron to an elevated green. From the tee box, this hole looks menacing but it is a beauty. 800-632-6400.

Falcons Fire

Located a few miles east of WDW Resort off Rt. 192 in Kissimmee, Fla., this Rees Jones design is very player-friendly with lots of water, wide, gentle fairways and large, receptive greens. You may have seen pictures of the signature 13th hole from the air. From that vantage point, it is far more imposing and spectacular than it is on the ground, but still it is an interesting and challenging dogleg right of 394 yards. The challenge off the tee is to take off as much of the lake as possible without getting your ball wet. On most other holes, Jones has designed in plenty of bailouts, in case you came here without your 'A' game. The flow of the holes is good but not spectacular. The course conditions, however, were some of the best I have ever seen. The club is managed by Western Golf Properties, which manages a distinguished list of other courses nationwide including Desert Highlands and The Golf Club at Desert Mountain both in Scottsdale, Harborside International in Chicago, Wild Wing in Myrtle Beach and Loch Lomond Golf Club in Glasgow, Scotland. This is a fine course for the casual golfer. 407-351-0557.